S. Koreans race to clean up 'sea of oil'

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S. Koreans race to clean up 'sea of oil'

About four miles of sensitive coastline affected by 2.7 million-gallon spill

The Associated Press

updated 5:23 a.m. AKT, Sat., Dec. 8, 2007

MALLIPO BEACH, South Korea - Residents and

emergency workers used buckets to remove dense

crude oil from South Korea's western shore as the

Coast Guard struggled in high waves and strong

winds to contain the country's largest oil spill

Saturday.

The oil was reaching scenic and ecologically

sensitive areas. At Mallipo - one of South

Korea's best-known beaches - tides of dark sea

water crashed ashore, while the odor could be

smelled a half-mile away. Hundreds of troops,

police and residents were engaged in cleanup

efforts there.

Oil was still trickling out of the tanker hit

Friday, but Kim Woon-tae, a Coast Guard official,

said the last of three holes would soon be sealed

completely. The Coast Guard headquarters had said

Friday that all three punctured containers on the

tanker were plugged.

The region is popular for its scenic beaches and

is also the site of fish farms, a national

maritime park and is an important rest stop for

migrating birds.

Mallipo, about 95 miles southwest of Seoul, is

one of the hardest-hit areas in the oil spill,

which occurred Friday when a barge carrying a

crane slammed into the supertanker, causing it to

release 2.7 million gallons of oil into the ocean.

The spill involved about twice as much oil as the

country's previous largest in 1995.

The oil reached shore Saturday morning,

contaminating about 4 miles of coastline, said

Jung Se-hi, a spokesman at the Coast Guard

headquarters in Incheon. Strong winds and

prevailing currents spread the oil slick

overnight to an area about 1 mile wide and 10

miles in length, he said.

'It's a sea of oil'

Environmental activists expressed anguish over the situation.

" It's helpless, " said Lee Pyong-gook, an activist

with the Korean Federation for Environmental

Movement. " It's a sea of oil. "

Lee said the region is a major stopover for

migratory snipe. " It was fortunate that those

birds have yet to arrive, " he said, adding

however, that some seagulls had been tarred by

oil.

The Coast Guard sent 67 vessels and six

helicopters to the site Saturday in an effort to

clean up the spill, said Kim Woon-tae, a Coast

Guard official who is stationed in the region.

" We're doing our best to remove the contamination

as quickly as possible, but it will take some

time to clean up the shore because it needs to be

done by hand, " said Kim, who is stationed in the

region. Kim also said it was difficult to predict

how long it will take to remove oil from the sea.

The size of the leak reported by the authorities

would be about one-fourth that of the 260,000

barrels, or 11 million gallons, of oil spilled

into Alaska's Prince William Sound by the Exxon

Valdez in 1989.

Tanker in no danger of sinking

The tanker, the Hebei Spirit, and the other

vessel, owned by South Korea's Samsung Corp.,

were in no danger of sinking, the Coast Guard

said. There were no casualties in the accident.

The tanker was at anchor, around 7 miles from

Mallipo, and carrying about 260,000 tons of crude

oil - about 1.8 million barrels - to be loaded

into boats from a nearby port when it was hit by

the South Korean barge, said Kim Tae-ho, another

Coast Guard official.

The barge, which was being towed from a

construction site by a small tug boat, lost

control after a wire linking it to the tug was

cut due to high winds, waves and currents, he

said.

Kim said the Coast Guard planned to question the

barge's captain as to why he was sailing through

the area despite the stormy weather.

 

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